Who We Are
Open Gov Hub began in 2011, inspired by President Obama’s launch of the Open Government Partnership during a wave of global social movements. As open government gained momentum, coworking hubs for collaboration started emerging worldwide.
Professionals—researchers, technologists, journalists, and more—came together to work on shared goals of transparency and accountability. This model of co-location and collaboration showed great promise.
In 2013, Global Integrity and Development Gateway launched the first version of Open Gov Hub at the OAS building. By April 1, 2014, the Hub moved into its current 20,000 sq ft space in downtown D.C.
Since then, our community, programs, and impact have grown significantly. We invite you to explore our site to learn more about our impact.
Our Team
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Director - Open Gov Hub
Tony is the current Director at Open Gov Hub. He has over 10 years of experience in Operations and Facilities Management, with his most recent position being with the global grocery giant, Lidl. In that role, he helped open their 10-story US Headquarters, as well many other related properties.
Tony grew up in New York City and interned at his first non-profit in high school. That internship led to a college scholarship and his degree in Business Management. After running his own business in NYC, he later worked for Fitness International, overseeing numerous Fitness Centers on the East Coast.
Now as Director of Open Gov Hub, Tony has helped steer the organization through the post-COVID transition, addressing emerging sector-wide challenges while fostering an inclusive, mission-driven community. Under his leadership, the Hub has seen steady growth in membership and renewed momentum in its collaborative programming.
Identifying efficiencies and cost-savings is one of Tony’s passions, and he utilizes those skills in a transformative way at Open Gov Hub.
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Senior Operations Associate
Adam is the Senior Operations Associate for the Open Gov Hub, ensuring the Hub runs smoothly and efficiently. In addition, Adam is the main point of contact and coordinator for Hub Events.
Adam is inspired by seeing people create change in the world for the better and helping “by proxy”. Adam is a certified audio engineer who attended the Institute of Audio Research in New York City. Working in various recording studios taught him the importance of hospitality within a technical role.
After studying International Business and Management at Liberty University, he worked in the hospitality field managing bars and directing beverages in NYC until he received the call to action at the Open Gov Hub and moved to D.C. While not helping someone set up the A/V in the event space or conference rooms, Adam can be found running, biking, or generally seeking fun and adventure.
Our Interns
Open Gov Hub works with several internship programs, connecting budding changemakers with the nonprofit world.
This team supports Tony and Adam on strategic and consultative actions to be taken by Open Gov Hub, as well as on final decision for admittance of new members to the Hub. They are a key part of the Hub’s operations, and we could not do our work without theirs!
Member Council
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Head of Partnerships, Open Contracting Partnerships (OCP)
Carey leads the engagement strategy and supports open contracting implementation around the world with Open Contracting Partnership. She also directly oversees projects in Africa, the Middle East, and France. Before joining OCP, Carey served as a Fulbright-Clinton Fellow with the national mining company of Côte d’Ivoire, where she also supported the Open Government Partnership process. Carey holds an MA from the American University of Paris and a BA from the University of Virginia. She has studied Arabic and is fluent in French. Carey is based in Washington, DC.
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Director of Business Development & Operation, Adapt, LLC
As Adapt’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Specialist, Craig leverages his field experience and expertise in grants, procurement, systems strengthening, compliance, community-led development, training, activity design and implementation, and pre- and post-award management to increase development effectiveness and local capacity. He brings over 15 years of experience leading and supporting U.S. Government-funded projects across South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean focused on political transitions, stabilization, governance, education, youth, and private sector engagement.
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Global Director of Learning, Accountability Lab
Cheri-Leigh has spent more than a decade in the international higher education and international development arenas. Through her work in leadership development, she’s conceptualized and implemented leadership and skills development curricula for emerging leaders geared for careers in both the private and public sectors. She oversees Accountability Lab’s learning and impact in her current position as part of a team working with young leaders to find innovative ways to hold governments accountable in 12 countries across Africa and South Asia.
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HR Associate, Development Gateway
Emma joined Open Government Partnership in October 2021 as the HR Associate, supporting operations and administration of the employee experience. They discovered their passion for HR in 2017 while managing WZBC-Newton, 90.3FM, an educational non-profit radio station, which broadcasts human rights news and experimental tunes. In addition to working at Open Government Partnership, Emma consults on HR projects for small businesses oriented towards social equity. They enjoy collaboration and cooperation, so they are always happy to connect at OGH.
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Director of Campaigns & Advocacy, Election Science
Chris is a political professional based in Washington, D.C. specializing in campaign management. Most recently, Chris managed two races for U.S. Congress in Southwest Florida and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He holds a Master of Science in Applied American Politics and Policy from Florida State University, and a Bachelor’s in International Studies in from the University of Florida. When not on the campaign trail, Chris enjoys working with his girlfriend Jane on their DC public transportation-themed blog “Raildrinks”, refereeing softball on the National Mall, and watching the Gators play on Saturdays.
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Program Manager, Global Integrity
Izabela worked for the World Bank intermittently since 2010, focusing on social protection, education, fragility and conflict, as well as youth and innovation. During her graduate studies, she served as the Project Manager for the UCLA Luskin School Global Public Affairs program, leading events and communications. In 2017, she co-founded a social impact start-up Akhandataa: Solutions for Impact. She holds a dual B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs from Emmanuel College in Boston, and Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Advisory Council
This team advises Tony and Adam on opportunities to connect Open Gov Hub to more diverse skills and expertise, to provide strategic input on key organizational decisions, and to expand the Hub’s network and resources that are available to us. While only in an advisory role, their work is essential to the Hub’s operations, and we are grateful for all they do!
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Global Network Lead at Obama Foundation (and former OGH Director)
Nada Zohdy is the current Global Network Lead at the Obama Foundation and the former Director of the Open Gov Hub, the world’s first innovation hub dedicated to the theme of open government. She has been a civic engagement consultant for multilateral institutions (like the World Bank and OECD), philanthropic foundations (like the Democracy Fund and Pillars Fund) and NGOs (like the Participatory Budgeting Project and the Open Government Partnership). She was previously the founding program coordinator for civil society partnerships at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), where she created a program that continues today to coach and connect a dozen local watchdogs and think tanks in transitioning Arab countries in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Over the last decade, Nada has worked with over 100 nonprofits in different capacities (one-on-one and through networks, in the US and internationally). These experiences fuel her passion for social innovation, globally and locally. She often writes and speaks publicly about democracy and social entrepreneurship, and has been published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Carnegie Endowment, Waging Nonviolence, and elsewhere. She is currently an Advisor for the Horizons Project, Accountable Now, and the BudgIT Foundation. Previously, she was Board Chair of Rhize, a nonprofit that coaches people-powered social movements around the world. Zohdy received her Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Pforzheimer Nonprofit Fellow, received her Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, and is a 2009 Truman Scholar.
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Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development (CGD)
Lindsay Coates is a nonprofit executive with a legal background in civil rights that brings together her passion for human rights, the social sector, and global development. She is active as a speaker and writer on a range of topics around equity and inclusion.
Until recently, Lindsay Coates was managing director of the BRAC global Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative. At BRAC, Lindsay led the advocacy agenda to leave no one behind through the effective, innovative and multi-dimensional solutions. She was responsible for learning and technical assistance activities worldwide in the 10+ countries in Africa and South Asia. Before joining BRAC, Lindsay served as the president of InterAction, a coalition of NGOs working to address poverty and injustice. Lindsay has also served numerous boards and as part of leadership initiatives to address pressing global challenges. These include the steering committees of the World Bank Global Partnership for Social Accountability and the World Bank Partnership for Economic Inclusion, the Leadership Circle of Foreign Policy for American, the executive committee for the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, and the boards of Episcopal Relief and Development, United States Global Leadership Coalition and Development Gateway. She also served on the Obama administration’s Task Force on Global Poverty.
Prior to her work in the nonprofit sector, Lindsay practiced civil rights law in various capacities including beginning her law practice in Mississippi. She is a graduate of the University of the South (Sewanee) and the University of Mississippi School of Law.
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Senior Strategist, Advisor; Social innovation and learning ecosystems
Nadia is social change senior leader who's cocreating with different partners to accelerate the shift towards a world where everyone is a changemaker, thriving and regenerating our planet and all living ecosystems. She recently launched Thriving Children Everywhere within the framework of Presencing Institute’s ulab 2x. Prior to that, Nadia was an advisor at the World Bank’s Innovation Labs, and Youth in Development program, after working on private sector development in the Africa region and overseeing IFC’s Financial markets’ portfolio valuations. Nadia was the director of project management and integration at Ashoka’s Changemakers. Earlier in her career, she also worked at private business consulting, investment banking and in executive education.
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Director of Africa and Middle East at Centennial Group
Jean-Louis Sarbib is currently Head of the Africa and Middle East Practice at Centennial Group International, a Distinguished fellow of the Emerging Markets Forum, and chair of the ACET Advisory Panel for the G20 Compact with Africa.
From March 2009 to January 2019, he was Chief Executive Officer of Development Gateway, an international nonprofit social enterprise whose mission is to support the use of data, technology, and evidence to create accountable institutions that listen and respond to the needs of their constituents and are efficient in targeting and delivering services that improve lives.
From 1980 to 2006, Mr. Sarbib was at the World Bank where he occupied a number of senior positions: Vice President for Africa, Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, and Senior Vice President for human development.
Upon leaving the Bank and before leading Development Gateway, Mr. Sarbib joined Wolfensohn & Company, a private equity firm, as a managing director. He was a non-resident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and taught at Georgetown University. He serves on a number of non-profit boards (Partnership for Transparency Fund, Feedback Labs, and Open Data Watch). He is a member of the board of governors of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a non executive director on the boards of the African University of Science and Technology, the Nelson Mandela Institution, and NOI Polls in Nigeria.
Prior to joining the World Bank Mr. Sarbib taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and worked for the French Government.
In 2006, Mr. Sarbib was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and received a Lifetime Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the World Bank. He received numerous honors from the countries where he worked.
Mr. Sarbib is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (now Mines Paris Tech) and holds a Master in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the General Manager course at Harvard Business School.
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Global Executive Director at Fundación Directorio Legislativo
María Baron is the Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo in Argentina. She is a journalist, has received a Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of Bologna, Italy, and is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina. She is also a Fulbright-APSA Congressional Fellow and holder of the 2013 NDI’s Civic Innovator Prize.
She has worked for civil society nonprofit organizations in Argentina and abroad with the aim of reducing unethical practices of lawmakers and public officials. María initiated and currently chairs the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency composed of 24 organizations in 12 countries of the region. She has published nine editions of Directorio Legislativo. Quiénes son nuestros legisladores y cómo nos representan.
With her team at Directorio, María developed a methodology around building consensus across polarized stakeholders on different issues and has managed to bring many of those agreements to Congress where they were signed into laws.
Within Directorio Legislativo she created the Regulatory Alert Service, which by using political analytics they can predict changes in regulation in 19 countries of the Hemisphere.
María served as a civil society member on the OGP Steering Committee from 2016 – 2021. She also was civil society Lead Co-Chair from 2020 – 2021 and is the current Chair of the OGP Board of Directors.
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CIO at ChainLink Capital; Board at CoverUSHealth
Andrew is an open source govtech entrepreneur, former government CIO and professional investor passionate about ventures that build a more decentralized, egalitarian and democratic planet.
He currently serves as a Chief Investment Officer at ChainLink Capital Management, a leading blockchain technology investor, and on the Board of CoverUS, a digital health company driving a more efficient and effective US health care system by putting patients in control of their own health data. He also serves as a Global Impact Entrepreneur and Board Member of New Zealand's Edmund Hillary Fellowship, and on the Board of Humanity in Action.
Previously, Andrew founded and built the DKAN open source open data platform, before selling the company to Granicus, and co-founded the NASA CoLab program to increase efficiency and transparency by building new partnerships between NASA and external communities.
As NYSenate CIO, his team created the first government Github repository in the world. Andrew was selected by GovTech as New York State Public Sector CIO of the Year and by Information Week for the "Government CIO 50."
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Co-Founder, Feedback Labs and GlobalGiving
Dennis Whittle is Co-Founder of Normal>Next, Feedback Labs and GlobalGiving. Previously, he was an economist at the World Bank where he worked for many years in Indonesia and Russia. His team there also created the Innovation Marketplace and the Development Marketplace. He has been Visiting Scholar at the NYU Development Research Institute, Robin Richards Donohoe Professor of the Practice and Social Entrepreneur in Residence at UNC-Chapel Hill, Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University and Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
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Associate Director of the Global Public Affairs program and Urban Planning Lecturer at UCLA
Stephen Commins works in areas of regional and international development, with an emphasis on service delivery and governance in fragile states. Commins was Director of the Development Institute at the UCLA African Studies Center in the 1980s, and then worked as Director of Policy and Planning at World Vision International in the 1990s.
Dr. Commins was Senior Human Development Specialist at the World Bank from 1999 to 2005. Commins was one of the co-authors of the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. He also managed several initiatives on service delivery and safety nets in post-conflict countries, and the relationships between political reform and improved services. Later on, he served as the consultation manager for several WDR publications, including: Behavior, Mind and Society (2015), Governance and the Law (2017), and Learning to Realize Education's Promise (2018).
Beyond the World Bank, Dr. Commins has conducted studies on health systems strengthening in fragile states for World Vision Canada, as well as on sub-national fragility in India and Pakistan for the HLSP Institute. He is also the thematic lead on ‘Safety and Security’ for the African Cities Research Consortium and recently authored a UNECA background on the ‘quadruple nexus’ in North Africa.
Dr. Commins teaches courses on urbanization, practice and methods in international planning, climate change, and disaster management at the Department of Urban Planning, Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
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Senior Advisor, Community Vision
Saul Ettlin is the Senior Advisor to the President at Community Vision and has over 20 years of experience managing and advising nonprofits. He has worked with dozens of organizations to explore and implement sustainable real estate solutions, particularly shared space strategies. He has a strong interest in growing the amount of community controlled real estate as power building, placekeeping and resiliency strategies. Beyond real estate, Saul has significant grassroots electoral experience, especially young voter engagement. He holds a MPA with a concentration in Nonprofit Management and a BS in Political Science and Community Development. Both are from Portland State University.